Cooper & Cooper, Inc. v. Cameron

1 F.2d 406, 1924 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 969, 1924 A.M.C. 1140
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedAugust 5, 1924
DocketNos. 5372, 5501
StatusPublished

This text of 1 F.2d 406 (Cooper & Cooper, Inc. v. Cameron) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cooper & Cooper, Inc. v. Cameron, 1 F.2d 406, 1924 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 969, 1924 A.M.C. 1140 (E.D.N.Y. 1924).

Opinion

CAMPBELL, District Judge.

Tlie two libels in the above-entitled suits cover the alleged claims of over 30 shippers whose goods were shipped to purchasers in the Far East, and they claim damages because the steamship Capitaine Faure discharged the goods at this port, and did not deliver the same after the charterer failed to make, the payment provided for in the charter party. These actions were consolidated by order of this court.

By a charter party dated March 21, 1923, the owner of the Capitaine Faure, through its agents in New York, entered into a uniform time charter of said steamship with the respondent Eenben I. Cameron for the term of sis: months from the time the steamer was delivered to said respondent Cameron, at some point within the United States: “Charterers to pay as hire at the rate of 90 cents per deadweight ton on Lloyds summer freeboard, per 30 days. * * * Payment of hire to be made in cash, in New York, without discount, every 30 days, in advance. In default of payment, owners to have the [407]*407right of withdrawing steamer from the service of charterers.”

The charter party also provided, “Charterers to furnish captain with all instructions and sailing directions, * * * ” and also provided: “Captain to be under the orders of charterers as regards employment, agency, or other arrangements. Charterers to indemnify owners against all consequences or liabilities arising from captain, officers or agents signing hills of lading or other documents or otherwise complying with such orders. * * * ” This was not a demise, nor was the charterer the owner of said steamship pro hae vice.

Tho charter party also provided: “Charterers to have the option of subletting steamer giving due notice to owners, but original charterers always to remain responsible to owners for due performance of this charter.” No evidence was offered that any notice had been given to the owner of any subchartering or other agreement, but the respondent Fulton Steamship Corporation contend that the fact that it paid to the owner’s agent by its check the first month’s charter hire was sufficient to put tho owner on notice. But I do not so find.

The possession under the charter party of the steamship by the charterer began abroad on April 9th. On May 4, 1923, the steamship arrived at Pier 46, Brooklyn, and began to take on cargo. This continued from day to day; the last cargo being taken on hoard on the 9th day of May, 1923. Tho loading was not completed on May 7th, and in my opinion the manifest was not prepared, the ship was not ready to sail on May 7th, and no orders were given to sail on May 7th, nor at any time before May 9th, either by the charterer, Reuben I. Cameron, or the Fulton Steamship Corporation.

On or about April 14,1923, the lime charterer, respondent Reuben I. Cameron, entered into what is termed a berth agreement with the respondent Fulton Steamship Corporation, by which tho said Fulton Steamship Corporation became a subcharterer or agent for the time charterer. Thereafter the respondent Fulton Steamship Corporation proceeded to advertise and, as it contends, was seeking to establish a regular line.

No statement or promise was made to shippers that the master’s hill of lading would be furnished, but the dock receipts all showed that it was the hill of lading of the Fulton Steamship Corporation that was to bo furnished. The fact that the Capitaine Faure was a chartered vessel did not appear in the advertisements, and the shippers who dealt directly with the Fulton Steamship Corporation do not appear to have had any notice of that fact; hut in the eases where tho arrangements were made with the Fulton Steamship Corporation through shipping brokers, it is hard to believe that those brokers did not know that the vessel was a chartered vessel.

The acts of 1910 and 1920 did not impose upon the shipper the duty of inquiring as to whether the ship was chartered or owned by the Fulton Steamship Corporation, nor the terms of the charter party; but, if actual knowledge of the terms of the charter had been brought home to any of tho shippers, they would be bound by that notice (Armour & Co. v. Fort Morgan S. S. Co., Ltd. [C. C. A.] 297 Fed. 813), even if the bill of lading was signed by tho master.

The ship was not bound by the hills of lading signed by the Fulton Steamship Corporation, as they were without power to bind the ship. The Esrom (C. C. A.) 272 Fed. 266. Aktieselskabet Bruusgaard v. Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey (C. C. A.) 283 Fed. 106.

As to tho original bills of lading, signed by the master of the ship and delivered to the Steamship Corporation, and in tho case where the master by letter to the shipper ratified the act of tho Steamship Corporation in signing the bill of lading, a different rule applies, because the bills of lading make no reference to the charter party, and when signed and delivered to the shipper became the contract and bound the ship. In my opinion this is not the rule, however, if the Steamship Corporation’s bill of lading had been signed by it and delivered to the shipper, and thereafter the Steamship Corporation had induced the master to sign a further hill of lading, because in such case there was no reliance on the security of the ship by tho shipper at the time of shipment, but the reliance was wholly on the credit of the corporation, and the act of the corporation in inducing the master to sign a further bill of lading was for the benefit of the corporation in an attempt to reduce its liability, and the corporation would be bound by its knowledge of the terms of the charter party; and as the corporation under such circumstances would, in so far as the shipper might be benefited, be acting as the shipper’s agent, the shipper would be chargeable with the knowledge of the Steamship Corporation. The looking casually by the master at the bills of lading issued by the company before the ar[408]*408rival of the ship, even if he said they were “all right,” was' not a ratification of the acts of the corporation whieh bound the ship.

There is no direct provision of the charter party requiring the master .to sign bills of lading, but that he had the power and was expected to exercise it appears from the fact that the charterer agreed in the charter party to indemnify the owner against such acts. The case at bar is clearly distinguishable from The Sprott Case (D. C.) 70 Fed. 327, in whieh case the master was present at the times that, the bills of lading were signed, and the “charterers acted in the immediate presence of the master, and scarcely otherwise than as his amanuenses,” while in the instant ease many of the bills of lading were signed by the corporation before the arrival of the ship.

As to the bills of lading containing the indorsement “on board,” even if signed by the master, if in any case the goods were not actually on board at the date of the bill of lading, the same were signed in violation of law, and the master was without authority to bind the ship by such illegal action, except in so far as she might be liable to the penalty provided for the violation of that law (The Isola Di Procida [D. C.] 124 Fed. 942); and in my opinion The Sark (D. C.) 245 Fed.

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Related

Vietor v. National City Bank
200 A.D. 557 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1922)
The Isola Di Procida
124 F. 942 (S.D. New York, 1902)
The Sark
245 F. 909 (E.D. Louisiana, 1912)
Aktieselskabet Bruusgaard v. Standard Oil Co.
283 F. 106 (Second Circuit, 1922)
Armour &. Co. v. Fort Morgan S. S. Co.
297 F. 813 (Fifth Circuit, 1924)
Wyman v. The Sprott
70 F. 327 (S.D. New York, 1895)

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Bluebook (online)
1 F.2d 406, 1924 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 969, 1924 A.M.C. 1140, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cooper-cooper-inc-v-cameron-nyed-1924.